Europe's richest family eye Paris rivalry

Paris has everything — stunning architecture and arguably the best food and fashion in the world. But the French capital lacks one essential element of a modern metropolis: it has no football rivalry.

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Despite Qatar-owned Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) spending vast sums in recent years assembling a team featuring superstars like Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, and the club reaching this season's Champions League semi-finals, the city has never truly been a football crucible.

Yet the Paris region is probably the world's hottest football talent factory.

Twenty-nine players from the greater Paris area went to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, including 11 members of the France squad which reached the final, with others representing the likes of Portugal, Cameroon, Tunisia, Senegal and Morocco.

But Paris, the biggest urban area in the European Union with a population over 12 million, has had only one club in France's top division — PSG — since Racing Paris were relegated 35 years ago.

London has seven clubs in the Premier League, while Madrid, Milan, Rome, Barcelona and Athens all boast multiple top-tier teams.

That may be about to change thanks to one of the wealthiest families in the world.

Bernard Arnault has spent most of the last five years jousting with Elon Musk for the title of richest person on the planet, according to Forbes magazine.

The dip in the luxury goods business has seen him recently slip to merely the richest man in Europe, with a estimated fortune of around US$190 billion.

The founder of LVMH, the luxury goods conglomerate that owns fashion brands like Dior, Louis Vuitton and champagne producer Moet & Chandon has the money and the marketing muscle to move mountains.

THE ARNAULT PROJECT

Last November his family took a majority stake in a small club called Paris FC, with his eldest son Antoine — a football fan and former PSG season ticket holder — saying they wanted to turn it into a force to be reckoned with.